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August 1, 2002

Web Pages to Go: Offline with Internet Explorer

By Wesley A. Fryer

As Internet access becomes faster and more widespread, it is natural to rely on it more than in the past. When teachers use Internet content more frequently in instructional lessons, however, chances increase that during at least one class period, Internet access will be interrupted. Suddenly, the fantastic multimedia supplement the teacher had planned to use to interest or impress students is no longer available. Both teachers and students are disappointed, and the teacher may very well chalk up this experience as yet another frustrating, failed attempt to integrate technology in the classroom.

Even if Internet access is not interrupted entirely, most have experienced slow Internet connections. The speed Web pages are rendered within a web browser is dependent on a variety of factors. Many of these factors are beyond a teacher's control, but there is hope. By making "offline" copies of Web pages on a computer's hard drive (or on a network fileserver) that are accessible anytime (even if Internet access is completely down), these problems can be avoided.

Offline Web Tools

A variety of different software tools that allow users to copy or download "offline" versions of Web pages has been available for several years. Commercial products, shareware software, and even freeware programs offer features and benefits as well as limitations when it comes to offline web browsing.

The latest version of Internet Explorer (IE) for both Windows and Macintosh computers overcomes the limitations of previous versions. IE 5 is:

• Intuitive when it comes to saving a webpage offline
• Capable of saving pages locally or immediately to a network folder
• Supportive of most advanced HTML features
• Free

While some school districts continue to use Netscape Navigator as their web browser of choice, it appears that the "browser wars" between Microsoft and Netscape are virtually over. Internet research firm Websidestory (www.websidestory.com) found in June 2000 that 86% of computer users use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and just 13.9% use Netscape. Whatever browser an Internet user prefers, Internet Explorer remains a free product with robust features on both Windows and Macintosh computers and deserves consideration when searching for inexpensive (or free) and intuitive offline web tools.

Offline Webpage Saving in Windows

Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5 for Windows both include enhanced capabilities for saving webpages offline. The steps to do this are:

1. Open the webpage you want to save locally. Let the page completely load.
2. From the FILE menu, choose SAVE AS.
3. Create and name a new folder to save the webpage into, and open the folder.
4. At the bottom of the file saving dialog window, make sure "Web Page, complete" is selected.
5. Rename the file as desired. The file extension ".htm" will be added automatically, so the computer will know that when the file is double clicked, it should be opened in the default web browser.
6. Click SAVE to save the Web page.
7. To save additional Web page, repeat these steps and use a different filename. The new Web page can be saved in the same folder if desired.

IE 5 for Windows saves the Web page as an HTML document, and creates a new folder (within the folder previously created) for all the images included in the page. This file saving format is advantageous, because these files (the entire folder containing both the HTML file and the images) can be transferred to a network fileserver / intranet for access by Macintosh as well as Windows web browsers.

To open a saved Web page, double click the file name that was used when saving it in Internet Explorer. If the page has been saved on the network, a link on an intranet homepage to the saved page may be created, so others can more easily directly link to the page. In the web browser, when the page is displayed, its local path (like F:/sharedfiles/page.htm) will be displayed, indicating the content is being accessed locally rather than from the "live" internet (with a http:// address).

Offline Web page Saving on a Macintosh

Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh also includes enhanced offline Web page saving features, which have unique benefits as well as some limitations when compared to its Windows counterpart. The main differences are:

• IE 5 for Macintosh lets users specify how many "levels deep" a Web site should be copied offline. This allows many pages to be copied simultaneously (even an entire Web site.)
• Web pages saved from IE 5 on a Macintosh are saved as a single file, which is only readable on Macintosh computers. Unlike websites saved offline in IE 5 for Windows, which include an html page and separate image files (as HTML pages do on a web server), this "single file format" on a Macintosh prohibits the saved Web pages from being viewed on Windows computers. These single files are slightly easier to copy to other computers or a network folder, however.

My conclusions concerning these differences are:

• To save offline copies of websites for a cross-platform (Mac / Windows) environment, use a Windows computer and IE 5 to save the Web pages to the fileserver. Each Web page must be saved separately.
• To make an offline copy of multiple pages on the same website, using a Macintosh both to copy the files and present them to students, use IE 5 for Mac.

The steps to make offline copies of Web pages in IE 5 for Macintosh are:

1. Open the Web page to save locally. Let the page completely load.
2. From the FILE menu, choose SAVE AS.
3. Create and name a new folder to save the Web page into, and open the folder.
4. At the bottom of the file saving window, make sure WEB ARCHIVE is selected.
5. Click the OPTIONS button and choose the features desired. These can include downloading multimedia elements in addition to images, such as sounds and movies. You can also choose to DOWNLOAD LINKS and select the number of "Levels deep" to copy. Beware that file size and download time will increase as more options are selected. It is generally a good idea to "Skip links to other sites," as this option is checked by default. Click OK to close the OPTIONS window.
6. Click SAVE to start the Web page copying process. A progress window will be displayed showing which files remain to be downloaded.

To open the saved Web page, double click the file name used when saving it in Internet Explorer. If "Download links" was used, the address of a Web page saved offline with Internet Explorer will look (at the top of the browser window on the address line) as if the website is "live" on the internet: it will remain http://www.mysite.com. However, in the lower left corner of the browser window, a globe with a red line will be displayed, indicating the page is not "live" but rather "offline." This is an advantage, since students creating a bibliography with this offline website can still directly copy the Internet address from the browser, just as they would if the website were "live" on the web.

Go Offline!

Making offline copies of Web pages remains a somewhat time consuming endeavor, but the complexity and level of know-how required to do it have been substantially reduced by the new features of Internet Explorer. If a lesson is taught several times during the day and uses the same webpages, why not make offline copies of them? By doing so:

• the Web pages will display faster in the web browser
• access to these Web pages will be guaranteed and not subject to unpredictable interruptions in Internet access
• the Web page content can still be displayed, even if the original Web page on the Internet is changed or removed

The Educational Fair Use provisions of US Copyright law provide educators with permission to use electronic resources under certain limitations (including portion and time), but do not constitute a "blank check" to copy an internet website and use it indefinitely for any purpose. Review the guidelines from the Consortium of College and University Media Centers on acceptable educational uses of multimedia materials online and become familiar with the limitations they suggest.

Email: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer is the Director of Distance Learning for the College of Education at Texas Tech University. He provides instructional technology training and support to K-16 educators as a consultant and through his free web site, Tools for the TEKS.

Texas Computer Education Association
Copyright 2002, TCEA. Reprinted with permission.